John, pt. 81 | John 14:1-6

John 14:1-6 and the Call to Believe in Jesus

If you will, at this time, take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to John's gospel, chapter 14. The gospel of John, chapter 14, we will consider verses one through six, and this is our 81st message.

Y 'all see how Red was really comfortable making fun of me a few minutes ago, right?

Okay.

See, he only has seconds.

I have an hour.

Like, what are you doing? No, I'm glad that Red feels that comfortable with me since he's been here. Our friendship has grown, and so grateful for each and every one of you who are here. That doesn't give you permission to make fun of me, though.

All right, I'm gonna open this up in prayer. Gracious God, Lord, we love you. Lord, we gather here today because we love you, and because you have commanded us to gather together. We are known as the body of Christ, and Lord, here as we assemble as your body, as your bride, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you speak to us.

Lord, there's so much in your word that we just cannot take at face value. It's one thing to know the words, to recite the words, but it's quite another thing to know why the words were written. Lord, that's where this portion comes from.

And God, we pray that you speak to us. If they're dependent upon me to reveal this to them without your spirit, they have placed their faith in the wrong thing. Lord, I need you. Please, please speak to your people.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let's begin with a text, John chapter 14, verses one through six. Jesus speaking says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.

And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

When Jesus tells him that he is the way, he tells him that you know the way, meaning they know him. My dear friends, do we know Jesus? If we know Jesus, we know the way. He says that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him.

Our theme for this Lord's Day is a call to believe in Jesus. And to believe in Jesus is to know Jesus. The two are not separated. You cannot believe in Jesus without knowing Jesus. And if you know Jesus, you know the way.

He is the way.

This is what this whole portion is about. However, this one verse, verse six, which you would think that is the highlight of this message, and it is, that is not where we're going to spend most of our time today.

Again, this theme is a call to believe in Jesus. And my proposition is this, to believe in Jesus is to believe in God. You, like me, may have run into people who may not like the fact that we as Christians believe that there's only one religion, the Christian faith, right?

The Bible tells us that there's one faith, one Lord, one baptism. This one faith that we are a part of is the Christian faith, those who are in Christ. The word Christian came upon us as a way to, let's say, make fun of us, right?

We were known as the people of the way. We were those that followed after that Christ guy, that person who claimed to be the Christ, right? And then eventually it was like, those are those Christ ones, those Christ-like ones, those Christians.

And we're like, hey, that sounds pretty good. Claim it, right? We are those that follow Christ. We are Christians, right? If you're not following Christ, you're not a Christian. And there's only one faith.

There's only one religion. There's only one way to God, and that is Jesus Christ. And those who follow Jesus are Christians. You may have heard people say something like, God isn't inclusive, or God is accepting, and you don't receive God, but that God accepts us just the way we are.

And no matter what you call God, we are speaking of the same entity. Pope Francis just recently made a statement, and I touched on it a few weeks back, where he claimed that all religions are pathways to the one God.

And I told you that what it reminded me of was something that I studied probably about 10 or 12 years ago, where this one guy was speaking about a mountain, and on each side of the mountain, there's different ways to the peak.

And that of a religion is basically, each religion is on different sides of the mountain, and as we climb whatever side that we're on and the different valleys that we might come to, that it's all eventually going to lead to the peak, to the one God.

My dear friends, that's just not so. The Christian faith, what we believe, a part of this core doctrine, is that we cannot get to God. The Bible says that God dwells in unapproachable light, and what does it mean to be unapproachable?

You can't get to him, all right? Like if he's on a mountain, it's a mountain that we cannot climb. And so the Christian faith says that God came down from the mountain, that we cannot ascend to him, so he descended to us, he condescended, so that we can know him.

And he reveals to us how to get to the Father, and it's through him, Jesus Christ. And if you're just not sure how that's true, please give me your attention for this hour, because that's where we are in the text.

Believing in Jesus Is Believing in God

In our outline, Jesus is ministering to his disciples while pointing them to him, and he does so in three ways. He calls them to believe in him, he calls them to trust in him, and he calls them to follow him.

So point number one, he calls them, his disciples, you and I, we're his disciples as well, to believe in him. Or number two, he calls them, us, to trust in him. Number three, he calls them, us, to follow him.

And as we transition, let's remember that in our text, this is Jesus' last night before his crucifixion. Then in chapters 13 through 17 of John's Gospel, we're going to see Jesus ministering to his disciples by way of prayer.

He's ministering to them, he's gonna be comforting them, and he's going to be praying for them. And in chapter 18, we will see the betrayal take place. And also in chapter 18, we will see that he is judged before Pontius Pilate, and then in chapter 19, we're going to bear witness to the crucifixion.

But now let's turn our attention to see how Jesus begins to minister to his disciples. So point number one, he calls them to believe in him. Look at verse one of chapter 14. He says, let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me. Here in this verse, we see Jesus consoling his disciples. And once again, what is he doing? He's serving them. Our God is a servant. He's a servant, he is serving them.

To console someone is to serve them by comforting them in a time of grief or disappointment, or sometimes it's both. The question is, is why are they grieved or why are they disappointed or why is it both?

And the answer in short is Jesus is leaving them. He's leaving them. They have spent three to three and a half years of their life following after Jesus. They have left everything to follow Jesus. And now Jesus is talking about leaving them to go back to his father.

You have fishermen leave their job.

Think about that.

They left their jobs to follow Jesus. They left everything that they knew to follow Jesus.

They stopped being fishermen.

They stopped being tax collectors.

They stopped being prostitutes.

And they were following after Jesus. And now Jesus is telling them that he is leaving them. Jesus is going somewhere that they at that moment cannot go. And they're troubled. Look at chapter 13, verse 33.

We looked at this last week. He says, little children, yet in a little while I am with you. You will seek me. And just as I said to the Jews, so I now also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.

Look down at verse 36. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterwards. They have been following Jesus and now Jesus is leaving them and they're troubled.

Remember that Greek word there for troubled means that something inside of them is stirred up. They're having emotions that they don't know what to do with. Again, they've left everything to follow him and now he is telling them that he's leaving them.

Sometimes when I'm reading this, I'm thinking that this is the only thing that he said so far that they understood. This is the only thing that they've picked up when he's dropped and they're troubled.

In chapter 14, verse one, their hearts are troubled, they are grieved and they are disappointed. They don't understand. They understand that he's leaving, they just don't understand why. They don't want him to leave.

In other words, you, if you were able to spend this time with the Savior, you would have not wanted him to leave.

You would be troubled. You would be grieved.

You would be disappointed. And in this verse, verse one of chapter 14, he consoles them by saying this, believe in God, believe also in me. Now, some people will probably say, well, that's not good counseling.

You console them by telling them to believe in God and to believe also in him. In other words, he is saying this, because these are children of Abraham, physical descendants of Abraham. They grew up knowing about God.

They grew up believing in God. And he says to them, in other words, in the same way that you believe in God, whom you cannot see, believe also in me, whom you will not be seeing. He's telling them to put their faith in him.

Jesus can say this because Jesus is God. And so he consoles them by pointing to him, believe in God, believe in me. No one else can say those words. I can't say those words to somebody if I'm consoling someone, if I'm counseling someone, I have them and they're upset for whatever purpose.

My counsel to them is not, well, it is believe in God, but it's not, but also believe in me. I can't say anything like that. And ladies and gentlemen, if I begin to say some stupid stuff like that, please remove me, even if it's by force.

And this goes so far, excuse me, and this goes for you and I as well. Because if I were counseling you, I could say, believe in God and believe also in Jesus. When you and I are troubled, when there's something stirred up in us, we have hope.

We can believe in Christ in the same way that we believe in God, because Jesus is God, right? We spoke about this numerous of times throughout this gospel about the one God and three persons and that God is a trinity, right?

First John chapter two, verse 23, the same author says this, no one who denies the son has the father, that whoever confesses the son has the father also. And so in that time of grief, that when the minister is to comfort you and he tells you to believe in God and to believe also in Jesus, that when you confess Jesus, you know that you have the father.

You know you have the father.

We have hope.

That is great counseling. That is something great to say to someone when they're troubled, when they're broken in spirit, when they need hope, you can point them to God, the father, and you can also point them to Jesus Christ, that if they confess Jesus, they know they have the father.

You have God in your times of trouble. And so Jesus is teaching us how to counsel. We see this firsthand with him and his disciples. Point number two, he calls them to trust in him. Look at verses three and four.

Before I read that, because there's, you know, you said believe, faith, that's kind of, you know, along the same thing, right? But it's not necessarily, so when he's saying, when I say he calls them to believe in him, that is faith in him.

But there's also a process, faith in the process, faith in what he's doing. And that's where this trust comes in. Point number two, he calls them to trust in him. Look at verses two and three. He says, in my father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. So he's calling them to trust that promise.

That when he leaves, he is going to prepare a place and that he's coming back to get them. Again, this is great counseling, right? If you believe in God, you can believe also in Jesus and you can trust that Jesus has prepared a place for you and he's coming back for you.

First, let's deal with what's apparent and obvious here. And then I wanna dive a little deeper and look at what isn't quite understood, what isn't so obvious in the text. I know some of you probably hate when I go that direction, but I feel like you have to, especially here with John.

John is always speaking of something and teaching something that makes the two come together. I've been enjoying my time in this wonderful gospel. First, what's obvious. What's obvious in this text is that most people will agree with is that Jesus is going to the father's house which has many rooms.

The Greek word here for rooms, it actually means places to dwell. You might have a translation that says mansions. The Greek word does not mean mansions in the way that we understand mansions. Now there is an old English form of mansions that we could dive into, but as I was thinking about it, it's really purposeless for what we're looking at today.

But just know when your translation says mansion, it's not talking about some huge mansion for you to live in. It just means places to dwell. So when it says in my father's house are many places to dwell, are many rooms, that is the literal meaning for that verse.

And wherever his father's house is, whatever it is, there's a place for you. Jesus is telling us that in his father's house, there is a place for you. Now what isn't so apparent is that Jesus is going to prepare a place for us.

We don't understand what that means, but what is apparent is that he's going to prepare a place for us, and that when he prepares this place for us, he will come after us. He is going to come and take us to where he is that we can be with him.

Now many well-meaning Christians, and I mean that, so what I'm about to say, I'm not saying that these people are not Christians, many well-meaning Christians see this portion of scripture as speaking about the rapture of the church.

I do not share that understanding when it comes to this text. I do not believe that there's ever going to come a time where the church will be raptured, removed from the earth, to where a seven-year tribulation can begin, and then brought back for a thousand years on earth.

I do not believe that the scriptures teach it. I do not believe that that's what this passage is teaching, nor do I believe that that's what's taught anywhere in scripture. And listen, even if it is taught elsewhere in scripture, in the context of John 13 and 14, it is not there.

There's nothing in this context that would lead someone to that understanding. We know that the kingdom of God is here. Jesus mentioned that with him came the kingdom of God, but we also know that it isn't here fully, that there is a here and not yet understanding of this kingdom.

We can clearly conclude from the context, being from chapter 11, or we can even go all the way back to chapter two and use the context from chapter two, where Jesus turned the water into wine, that this is dealing with the second coming.

It's not dealing with the rapture. It's dealing with the second coming. And we can say that in chapter two, that what's taking place here in the wedding of Canaan, that it is a picture of the Jewish wedding.

And then when you look at this, again, most people, what's obvious here is as they read this, they say, yes, this is speaking about the Jewish wedding. So when a man would betroth a bride, the bride would go to her father's house and he would go to his father's house and he would build a place onto his father's existing place.

And in this time, his family would store up wine. And once he had built a place onto his father's existing place, then he would go and retrieve his bride. And then there will be this seven day festival of a wedding.

So Jesus is saying that I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again to take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. So you can see that's clear wedding language when you understand what a Jewish wedding is, that he is going to prepare a place for his bride.

Again, I mentioned earlier, the church is called the body of Christ, but we're also called the bride of Christ. On the last day, so this speaking of the second coming, on the last day, that's when that will occur, Jesus returns for his bride, the dead in Christ will rise clothed in Christ and will meet the Lord in the air.

So the question is, is what does it mean to meet the Lord in the air? Because this is where those well-meaning Christians would say that this is what this is talking about, that this is the rapture of the church.

The apostle Paul speaks of this event in 1 Thessalonians chapter four. If you will turn there, 1 Thessalonians chapter four, we will read verses 13 through 18. I'll give just very little commentary. 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18.

I'm sure many of you have heard this and you believe in the rapture, this is your go-to passage. It says, so Paul's speaking right into the church of Thessalonica. He says, but we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep.

So this would be those who have passed away, that you will not grieve as others do, who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

So the context here is speaking about the resurrection of the dead. That's not the rapture. That's when Christ returns. We see this clearly laid out for us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look at verse 15.

It says, for this we declare to you by a word from the Lord that we who are alive and who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first. Talking about the sheep, those that are in Christ, not Adam, not speaking of the goats. It says, then we who are alive, meaning that something's going to happen to those who have not died.

And another area of scripture, another passage says that we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. You say, Jeff, what does that look like? I have no idea. I have no idea. I don't know if we're gonna fall over dead and rise again or if it's gonna be some kind of mighty morphing power rangers where the new body just comes upon us, right?

I have no idea what that is, right? But this is what it says. It says, then those who are alive, who are left, right here, will be called up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

So this is where they get the rapture. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with those words. And now I will say, I believe in the rapture. Just not what they're saying, not how they lay it out.

So that's what Paul said. However, what I believe Paul meant and what the recipients heard was at this time when a king would go out to battle, they would have people watching for their king. And when their king would return, the village would go out to meet the king and they would follow the king back to the village.

So this is something that was actually taking place at that time. So when Paul, who is, is Jesus our king? Can Jesus tell us what to do? Yeah, so we're supposed to be doing what? Watching and waiting.

When we see our king coming, we're going to meet him in the air and then we're gonna come back with him. This is the picture that Paul is laying out. He's using something earthly to explain something heavenly.

And John, that's what John does. Paul is speaking of something heavenly that would have brought to mind something earthly that they would have understood. The problem is, is it's one thing to know the words on the book.

It's quite another thing to know why the words are in the book. Why was it written like this, right? So it's a lot more. So I was having a small debate with the Church of Christ. He says, if all you had was the Bible, would that be sufficient?

I said, oh, for sure. But that is not all I have. I actually have information to tell me why these certain words are written in the Bible. And it gives me a better understanding of the Bible or else I would just be confused.

And if you want to see a Church of Christ who's confused, go back and watch Brayden's debate last night. So I would say that it's clearly talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now, I also believe it's teaching something that isn't clear.

It isn't apparent. And let's begin with the father's house. We're back at the text. It says, in my father's house are many rules. Rooms, excuse me, I said rules, but it's rooms are dwelling places. All right, the only other time in John's gospel that Jesus mentions the father's house is in chapter two.

So turn with me to chapter two. Chapter two, I want to read verses 13 through 16. Verse 13, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and in the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting at the table.

I mean, sitting there, excuse me, and making a whip of cords, he drove them out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

Verse 16, and he told those who sowed the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. Question, see if you were listening. In this text, what is the father's house?

Answer, the temple. So what's the father's house? The temple. The Jewish temple is a pattern after the Jewish tabernacle. If you turn on the back of your bulletins, you will see that I have the tabernacle printed out there for you.

So the Jewish temple is a pattern of the Jewish tabernacle and the Jewish tabernacle is a pattern of the tabernacle in heaven. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews chapter eight. We're gonna be doing a little more teaching than preaching today.

It is what it is. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says that preaching is theology on fire. So we're gonna set a blaze here. So look at verse one of chapter eight. So it's now the point in what we are saying is this.

We have such a high priest, speaking of Jesus, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne, excuse me, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places.

So when you look in that picture of that tabernacle, that inside that tabernacle, you have a tent. That's what you would call the holy places. And the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. So who set up the tent that's on that picture, that tabernacle?

That's Moses' tabernacle was set up by man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it is necessary for this priest, speaking of Jesus, also to have something to offer. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

Verse five, they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. Speaking about that earthly tent, they're in that earthly tent serving a copy, a shadow of heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.

That when Moses was on that mountain, he was given specific instruction. He saw the tabernacle in heaven and he was to return and build what he saw in heaven. Does that make sense? So the Jewish temple is a pattern of the Jewish tabernacle and the Jewish tabernacle is a pattern of the tabernacle in heaven.

The earthly tabernacle and temple were pointing to a greater tabernacle and temple which is in heaven. This tabernacle in heaven is the Father's house, which I would argue is heaven. So if you wanna know what heaven looks like, you can get an idea of it if you turn your bulletin around and look at the tabernacle.

Heaven is the place where Lazarus was seen by the rich man in Hades at the side of Abraham. Now there's a whole lot of teaching there.

That I would like to go through,.

But we don't have time to do that today. If you ever wanna do it, say Jeff, do a one-off sermon where we can get this understanding and I'll be glad to do it. Now what's called the bosom of Abraham is not separated from the place called heaven.

As a matter of fact, I would say if your translation says the bosom of Abraham, although it's an okay translation, it doesn't really give you the details of what that means because all it means is that Lazarus was at Abraham's side.

So if someone was to come up here and stand beside me, like right here beside me, that's all that means, that you would be in the bosom if you were right here beside me. So it's not necessarily a separate place from heaven called Abraham's bosom.

It's just Lazarus was standing beside Abraham in heaven. Like that's all that means, right? We can go back to John chapter one and it talks about Jesus, the word being in the bosom of the father. No, it was just, they're beside each other.

They sit on thrones together. So what separates those in heaven, excuse me, what separated, separated, past tense, not no more, what separated those in heaven from being in the presence of the father at that time was the same thing that separated all people from being in heaven away from the father, and that is the work of redemption, which is why the father sent his son and he sent him to accomplish the work of redemption, that Christ must fulfill the father's purpose.

Remember, the father purpose to save a people. Christ comes into time and accomplishes that purpose to his life, death, burial and resurrection that the Holy Spirit applies the purpose to the message of the gospel, that the veil in heaven, just as on earth must be torn.

God has laid out a pattern. And if you read the book of Revelation, which I'm hoping to get into eventually, you see things happening on earth and you also see them taking place in heaven, right? And so when Jesus is crucified on earth, the book of Matthew says that the temple veil was torn from top to bottom, all right?

Also that temple veil in heaven had to be torn. And that's an argument that I would make if we'd done a one-off sermon. Can't make it today. Now, if you would allow me to challenge your presupposition concerning this text, Christ is not in heaven right now building onto his father's existing house.

You say, but Jeff, it says it in the text. It says it in the text. I go to prepare a place for you and when I prepare this place for you, when I'm done, when I have finished, I'm gonna come to you and bring you to myself and I'm telling you that Christ is not in heaven right now building onto his father's existing house.

You say, well, why would I come to such a conclusion? He has already told us in here, if you pay attention, he says that in his father's house are many places to dwell. There's already a place for us to dwell in his father's house.

He does not have to go and build onto the father's house in the way that we see in the Jewish wedding. He's already said it, there's already a place for us. So the question is, is what does he mean by he's going to prepare a place for us?

This is what isn't so apparent. So as I move forward, I wanna introduce you to three titles given to Jesus. The first one is the lamb, the second one is the priest and the third one is the king. You might have heard me discussing this on my podcast here lately.

It could have been last week, I can't even remember. They kind of just blend together these days. In his death, Jesus Christ is the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sin of the world, right? That's the Pascal lamb was pointing to something greater, which is Jesus Christ.

So in his death, he is the lamb that is sacrificed for us. In his burial, he is the priest who offers up the sacrifice on the altar. And in his resurrection, we get from Acts 2, he is crowned king. In his death, he's sacrificed as the lamb.

In his burial, he's the priest who offers the sacrifice. And in his resurrection, he is crowned king. Does that make sense? Now, what I wanna focus on, what I wanna take us through is Jesus being priest, Jesus being buried.

I offer to you that in his going to prepare a place for us, Jesus was performing his priestly duties by entering into heaven during his burial. And during his burial, in the entrance into heaven, excuse me, during his burial, he enters into heaven as the priest.

And he walks into the Holy of Holies to present a once and for all sacrifice. Now, what I want you to do, again, I want you to turn to the back of your bulletin. All right, I want you to turn back there.

And I want you to imagine, again, it's gonna be more glorious than this. This is, the pattern is never as glorious as what it's pointing to, right? That lamb was nothing in comparisons to Jesus, right?

It was something pointing to Jesus. That's all this is, all right? Heaven's gonna be more glorious than what we see in this picture. But this is a pattern of what that looks like. I want you to imagine Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who are in this tabernacle in heaven, right?

And all of a sudden, a priest walks in who is marred but looks like a lamb as though he was slain, the book of Revelation tells us. And he walks into the Holy of Holies and he sprinkles his blood on the Ark of the Covenant, what Hebrews teaches us as we're watching this.

And all of a sudden, this lamb priest who walks in, walks out, the temple bell is torn and those that are in heaven have fellowship with the Father and that man who walks out, that lamb, that priest, is crowned, is the king of the world.

And then Isaiah says that once the father sees that offering, he prolongs his days. And so that priest lamb that walks in and offers up himself on the altar raises from the dead. That's the picture that we see in scripture.

That's the scene that Hebrews is teaching. And thereby causing the veil in heaven to tear which would allow those in heaven to have fellowship with the Father. And because of the work of Jesus Christ, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you and I, when we die, we will be with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and we will have fellowship with the Father.

But not only then, if you turn with me to 1 John 1 3, 1 John 1 3, you're gonna see that this is a reality we have right now. Look at verse three, it says, that which we have seen, speaking of Jesus, we have heard, right, they were with him, they heard him talking, we proclaim to you so that you too may have fellowship, right here, with us, speaking of the saints.

We're gathered here together today, we have fellowship with one another, we are saints. Now listen to this, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son. The only way to the Father is through the Son.

We as Christians have a unique relationship with the Father that the Jews never really had.

It's different.

We have fellowship with the Father through his Son. The veil has been torn, that which kept him separated from us because of our sins has been done away with, thus allowing those of us here today who have the Holy Spirit to have fellowship with one another and with the Son and with the Father, and we have that now.

We have it now.

So Jesus can say to those who are troubled to believe in God and to believe also in him. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter nine. We're gonna read verses 11 through 15. It says, but when Christ appeared, now have that in mind what I just was explaining to you, as high priest of the good things that have come.

So when he first came, then through a greater and more perfect tent, the one in heaven, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,.